Most beverages in popular consumption today are packaged in bottles or cans in portions convenient for an individual to consume that beverage. Such beverage cans are usually made of aluminum or steel. Generally, a consumer will refrigerate such a can before consuming the beverage from the can. Naturally, as soon as the can is taken from a refrigerator, ice box or cooler, the can will start to warm up to any ambient temperature greater than that of the refrigerated storage from which the can was taken. The beverage within the can warms because heat and electromagnetic radiation from the surrounding environment will transfer across the surface of the can and into the drink. Heat transfer occurs through three mechanisms: conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction refers to heat transfer that occurs across a medium such as a warm hand touching an aluminum can. Convection refers to heat transfer that will occur between a surface and a moving fluid when they are at different temperature. Thermal radiation occurs because all surfaces of finite temperature emit energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. The sun emits electromagnetic waves which travel through space and retransform into heat when they strike an absorbing object. The waves can also be substantially reflected away by a reflective object. The consumer will generally find it desireable to be able to keep a beverage can cool while the consumer is drinking from the can. Therefore a need exists for a way of keeping a beverage can as cool as possible for as long as possible from the time that the beverage is taken from its refrigerated storage.
The prior art approaches to this need are replete with passive sleeves made out of thermally insulating material that have the intended purpose of slowing the conduction of heat from the ambient surroundings to the can and thus raising the temperature of the can's contents. The sleeves range from the extremely simple cylinder that is open at both ends and that either is unitary or attaches with snaps or velcro, to elaborate pre-molded shapes that incorporate a handle, or a bottom. None of these sleeves can provide ideal insulation, since a major portion of the can is always exposed to the ambient temperature. Some prior art approaches have incorporated a source of compressed gas as a means of providing portable refrigeration of an insulated can carrier. The problem with this approach is that there is a need to replenish compressed gas cannisters, and even if the gas is relatively inert, such as carbon dioxide, there is always some attendant danger of gas cylinder rapture. Another prior art approach has been to fabricate a double walled vessel containing a refrigeratable fluid within the double wall cavity. The entire vessel is placed into a refrigerator and when the fluid in the double wall cavity is cooled, the vessel stays cooler longer when the vessel is filled with a beverage. Each of these approaches suffers from the shortcoming that a significant part of the can is exposed to the ambient temperature. Another shortcoming in the passive type of containers is that whatever thermal efficiency exists is a function of the insulation properties of the containers' material alone, with no other factors contributing to the ability of the container to keep the can cold.
The present invention therefore has as an object the providing of a more thermally efficient container that minimizes heat conduction to a beverage can. Another object of the invention is to actively provide a source of refrigeration to a beverage container that does not rely on a disposable piece of apparatus but rather a reusable refrigerant module that applies the principle of convection to refrigerate a beverage can. Yet another object of the invention is to minimize the rate at which a beverage can warms up by applying the principle of radiation, through shading the top of a beverage can from the rays of the sun. The invention seeks to achieve these objects by providing for a completely enclosing multiple component jacket, featuring a movable top cap, that can cover the entire beverage can, and that contains within it a reusable refrigerant module that is contained within a portion of the jacket, that actively provides a source of refrigeration to the beverage can being held within the jacket. The invention features an insulated cylindrical sleeve, an insulating pivoting top cap, and an insulated bottom cap having a recess for holding a chilled, reuseable refrigerant module.